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ConversionstechnicalUnited States only

Sheet Metal Gauge Converter

Sheet metal gauge to thickness, by material. Gauge is not a unit: 16 gauge steel and 16 gauge aluminium are different thicknesses, and the same number means different things in each standard.

Also called: gauge to mm sheet metal, metal thickness chart.

That is
Thickness
1.52

16 gauge steel is 1.52 mm, or 0.06 inches. A 3 m² sheet weighs about 35.77 kg. Gauge is material specific: the same number is a different thickness in steel, aluminium and stainless.

Gauge number
16
In inches
0.06
Sheet weight
35.77
Weight per square metre
11.92
On material differences
Gauge is material specific: the same number is a different thickness in steel, aluminium and stainless.
On the numbering
The numbering runs backwards, so a larger gauge is thinner material.
How this is calculated
Method and background

How this is calculated

Sheet gauge is a set of material-specific tables rather than a formula, and they genuinely differ: 16 gauge is 1.519 mm in standard steel, 1.291 mm in aluminium and 1.587 mm in stainless. Ordering by gauge without stating the material is therefore ambiguous, which is why fabrication drawings specify thickness directly. Like wire gauge the numbering runs backwards, with larger numbers meaning thinner material.

there is no single formula: each material has its own gauge table, and they disagree
g
Gauge

Worked examples

Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.

16 gauge steel

Gauge or thickness
16
That is
Gauge number
Material
Standard steel
Sheet area
3

Thickness1.52

1.519 mm x 7850 kg/m3

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the same gauge in aluminium is thinner

Gauge or thickness
16
That is
Gauge number
Material
Aluminium
Sheet area
3

Thickness1.29

boundary: the ambiguity this page exists to show

Open this example

Method and limits

What it assumes

  • Manufacturers Standard Gauge for steel and the Brown and Sharpe series for aluminium.

What it deliberately does not model

  • Mill tolerances are typically a few percent, so nominal thickness is not measured thickness.
  • Gauge tables vary slightly between references and countries.

Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · United States · Report a problem with this calculator

Frequently asked questions

Is 16 gauge the same in every metal?
No. It is 1.519 mm in standard steel, 1.291 in aluminium and 1.587 in stainless. Specifying thickness rather than gauge removes the ambiguity.
Why do bigger numbers mean thinner sheet?
The same reason as wire gauge: the number counted passes through the rolling or drawing process, and more passes made the material thinner.